‘Greenwashing is rife’: is Amy Powney the most sustainable designer in fashion? | Sustainable fashion

Amy Bonnie is London -based fashion designer, which, three years ago, did for sustainable costumes unless he could do for himself. I made it relatively, exciting.

As a topic of a 2022 documentary, Fashion Reedage, about its endeavor to make a fully sustainable group, has taken fans on the transformations and turns in trying to produce clothes that were – deep – organic breathing, which can be tracked, socially responsible and taking into account the care of the animal; It was produced in the smallest possible geographical region; And use the minimum water and chemicals.

The film created a stir in the industry, and although the clothes remained outside the financial forum for many, Powney showed what it was possible if (if it was “” big “) you had a pottery, and you were ready to do the work – I moved it to Uruguay, Peru, Austria and Turkey.

In her afternoon, Bonnie became her words, “[a] A kind of sustainable girl. ”She didn’t always sit comfortably.” He came with a huge amount of weight, pressure and responsibility, and nothing was emotionally ready for him, “she says on the phone. [thinking] Well, how will I fix this fashion industry? “

The clothes that she showed were trying to manufacture her in the documentary were for Mother Pearl, a ladies clothing mark founded in 2002. Over the years, Powney worked in its ranks to the creative director, the brand became synonymous with its lowest aesthetic and sustainability. At its climax, Gweneth wore a Paltrow, Foyby and Al -Yir Jisr.

After winning The Vogue Award for Best Young Designer this year in 2017, which comes with a major cash prize, Powney decided to use money to create a sustainable set of field to final clothes. Her pursuit of the documentary became.

In the following years, Powney became known for its activity and perseverance in trying to create a more fair fashion industry. It is also known for the design of very elegant clothes. Then, earlier this year, 19 years after Powney’s mother, Powney announced that she would leave – “she wanted to go out, and she reached 40 years I wanted to launch my own brand” and start something new, she says.

That new brand, called Powney Founder and Creative Director, is called Akyn. Why where? “A”, as you say, is “Atelier” and “Kyn” is a play on kinship. It is “about the power of society.” Its first group, which she calls Powney “A Baleate Cleanse”, which was launched on Friday. Elegant and elegant clothes. They take advantage of the same aesthetic that made the Olsen Twins. There is an unusual unusual sewing, completely communicable shirts, they are completely homeless, dilapidated dresses with a lunch in the waist and knitting Iran with the words of “peace” and “love” woven in it. “It is more implicit, it’s more high,” she says.

Akin lands simultaneously when Excessive production is still widespreadWith 40 % of the clothes that are manufactured every year – 60 billion clothes – not sold. There was also an increasing confession that buying used clothes is not a magic bullet. As mentioned or the basis in Stopping colonial waste Report: “The fashion industry uses the global clothing trade for clothing as a strategy for actual waste management.” Consumption curbing – better purchase, and less purchase – is the real answer.

Does Powney think there was a change in the situation? She says that the scenes conversation has turned. In the past, she was talking to suppliers and they would look at her “as if I were very crazy”, because “no one has asked before. No one visited a wool farm and no one had any idea.”

Ten years later, she says it has become more common to ask one of the supplies: “Is it approved? Can you tell me more about your supply chain?” “We have seen a lot of progress in the transparency of supply chains or at least talks on this topic,” she says.

The same for the consumer, which, in the past, can be greatly said to say – ignorant of sustainable costumes. Now people are more through language as well as some basic buildings. They know that organic cotton is generally better than inorganic, because it is the least impact crop; They know that Liosel, the weaving of cellulose is made of wood pulpIt is better than polyester.

But with these conversations, there were also complications. “We have gone through a huge climax of the sustainability chat in the press and through brands, but nevertheless it has just become an absolute wave,” Bonnie says. This is a wave of “uncertainty, misunderstanding, greenery, lack of legislation.”

Chat also showed about sustainable costumes in the past decade Not maybe. Take an example of the Powney collection. If this is what it takes to create more ethical clothes, what is the hope of the wider industry, in general, less willing to put it in a solid illegal earning? Or for people who buy this recycled polyester dress in the hope that they will do a little better with their fashion options, but they are not interested in changing their shopping habits deeper? Powney also notes: “Even if you have taken a bottle and turned it into a dress, it is dead.

Shortly, some despair seems to have infiltrated the way – the idea that if the moral purchase decisions are very complicated, then why do you care?

Powney plans to deal with a different conversation with its new brand. It has become somewhat common to know the number of water liters that you took to make jeans, or the number of plastic bottles that entered your bag. But without some dangerous experience, it is impossible to know what any of this really means.

“It is just a minefield,” she says. “Consumers are very confused. Washing greenery is widespread. There is no single supply chain that is also the same, which is why data capture is very difficult.” Powney plans to “re -tell creativity, craftsmanship, quality, design”, and explain the amount of work that goes to clothes – “because we have lost it in the world of fast fashion.”

Given the complications, it may be better to have a personality like Powney that can penetrate noise. Her re -depicting journey describes her “learning curve” and remembers things like “Fly Fighting”, “mules” and “micrors” – proof, if any, that it is good to have someone to cancel all this. It applies this knowledge “to every one decision I do,” she says.

The fly in an ointment, though, is the ability to afford costs. Akyn will be a little more expensive than a pearl mother, where dresses are sold for about 300 pounds. In industry, Akyn is still called “affordable luxury”, because, well, compared to other luxury signs. But still.

Of course, everyone can shop more and more sustainable without resorting to fast fashion, given the abundance of used clothes. But is there some hope that prices will decrease? For the Powney brand, no. “I am very small and I want to do the fibers properly and I want people to understand what makes the real natural organic fibers.” But she adds: “I was completely suffocated by being a small company, which means I have no power, I have no domain.”

Here comes the silver lining. She says there is “no reason that prevents other brands at low prices.” She is not, and she is talking, talking about “Shein, ASOS and Bohoo … This is just an absolute hope that you cannot produce clothes at this price.” But there is hope for brands in high streets, which have a “scale and price”. “The shift to organic cotton is also a completely implemented task.” In addition, she adds: “Luxury brands should be 150 million per cent and can do it.”

With akyn, Powney re -call her love for elegance. She talked about her time in Perle’s mother, saying: “I lost seeing a little girl who wanted to be a fashion designer.” Now it is back.